Put an end to this unspeakable organisation

The eight gathered prime ministers who, in 1949, issued the declaration that created the Commonwealth were clear. From the ashes of the old empire, the new assembly would bind nations “freely co-operating in the pursuit of peace, liberty and progress”. By December 2009 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II could say of the organisation of which she is the head, correctly and sadly: “The Commonwealth is not an organisation with a mission.”

On Wednesday night, as athletes trooped by seemingly in perpetuity at the identity-seeking opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, it was hard to avoid the thought that, as diverting as a lawn bowls contest between Botswana and Swaziland may be, the Queen might be right about the Commonwealth but wrong about the implications of…